Bonnie Erickson (born 1941) is the designer and builder behind Miss Piggy, Statler and Waldorf, Fozzie Bear and Zoot, and later head of the MuppetA Muppet is a puppet built in the soft foam-and-fleece style... Workshop.
She came in as a costumer
Trained at the University of Minnesota and the Art Students League of New York, she worked in theatre as an assistant costume designer before Jim HensonJim Henson (1936–1990) was the puppeteer and filmmaker who... More hired her in 1970 to build costumes for The Frog Prince. She stayed, moved into character work, and eventually ran the workshop and set up the original London one.
The technique she discovered
Working on a character called The Glutton, Erickson found that foamFoam is the structural material most soft puppets are built ... More could be carved from the outside with a pair of scissorsScissors and shears are the primary cutting tools in puppet ... More and then smoothed on a belt sander. That is a working method thousands of builders now use without knowing where it came from, and it is a good illustration of how much of this craft was invented by people solving one problem at a time.
Where the characters came from
Miss Piggy was not based on a person — Erickson has said she drew on her memories of the pigs on her uncle’s farm in Minnesota, where she spent childhood summers. The character was originally called Miss Piggy Lee, an homage to the singer Peggy Lee, until the legal department suggested shortening it. Statler and Waldorf came from late-night cab rides past the Yale Club in New York, looking in at the portraits and overstuffed chairs. Zoot came from a sketch of the Argentine jazz musician Gato Barbieri.
What that teaches
Every one of those characters started from something specific she had actually seen. That is the most transferable lesson in this entry.
After Henson
she co-founded Harrison/Erickson with her husband Wayde Harrison, spent thirteen years as Creative Director of the Children’s Television Workshop product division, and designed sports mascots including the Phillie Phanatic. She is a trustee of the Jim Henson Legacy.